National Defence committee  Indeed, my understanding was that the issue of whether the ombudsman felt he had the consent of the complainant to share all or part—I don't know—of the information that he had was that there had been an initial conversation and that this was an ongoing process, which makes sense

National Defence committee  Let me maybe start with what we were trying to do, which was to ensure that, ideally on March 2, Mr. Walbourne would get, from either the minister or the minister's team, a direct follow-up as to where things had been left after his meeting with the minister. What we didn't want

National Defence committee  My understanding was that if Mr. Walbourne was speaking to Ms. Sherman, one of the primary issues they would be discussing was, indeed, how do we make sure this complainant gets the protection or the cover that she feels she needs to move forward? That's the point of connecting t

National Defence committee  I expect that all of our interactions would have been verbal. I don't have any reason to believe they were otherwise. I don't have any written notes or emails or anything like that that tell me otherwise, but I can't say for sure. I expect it would have been. In the normal course

National Defence committee  Again, what I can say is that I did not do that. I made sure that she had all the information I had. At that time, our focus is really on how we make sure that this is in the right place, both in respect of Mr. Walbourne knowing where he's supposed to go and whoever is receivin

National Defence committee  Listen, I'm not here to pass judgment on whether and when that should have happened, and if it should have happened. All I can say here is the focus that we had at that time: We don't know what this is, but let's assume it's really serious. How do we make sure we put it in the ri

National Defence committee  First, on the seriousness, again, I'm not saying we knew it was serious; I'm saying we assumed it could very well be serious. We treated it the way we would have treated it if we had known that it was very serious. I just want to make sure that is clear. Again, you sort of said

National Defence committee  All Canadians who are watching what is happening on the file of harassment in the military are rightly shocked and concerned, and I think they share—and I certainly don't want to speak for the committee—what I expect the committee members probably also feel, which is that we are

National Defence committee  Obviously, I can speak only to things I witnessed and people I interacted with, but as I said in my opening statement, this file was not closed, as far as I was ever informed. No one here was not taking it seriously. No one here was not doing, as far as I can see, everything in t

National Defence committee  I don't think I have full information on this, so I want to be a little careful that I'm not speaking in place of others who may have better information. I did understand at that time that there was a question about whether the consent of the complainant to move forward was going

National Defence committee  What I don't know and I don't want to speculate on is the terms under which Mr. Walbourne said he was sharing that information. What I think we can agree on is that the minister certainly shouldn't then receive information and take some kind of effort to investigate it. I think w

National Defence committee  I don't want to speculate or offer a view. I'm not an expert in what authorities the different players would have had, so I just don't want to speculate unduly. What you want to ensure happens is that this information ultimately goes to the right place. As for what routes would

National Defence committee  I was not part of any briefing of that sort, but that doesn't mean anything. That would not ordinarily be a briefing that I would be a part of, so I can't say.

National Defence committee  Not necessarily. Certainly, in a situation where I didn't possess any different or better information, I can't say. I'm just trying to tell you what I know and be as candid as possible about that, to the extent it's helpful to you. I don't want to make—

National Defence committee  I don't know the answer to that question and I don't want to speculate as to how that would have been briefed in the course of the mandate. I think the commitment to those principles and to that reform is real. I'm just not in a position where I can tell you what that looked li